FIG. 1 depicts a schematic diagram of a typical radio front end in the prior art. Signals are received at antenna 101 and are filtered to a desired range of frequencies by bandpass filter 105. Low noise amplifier 107 amplifies the filtered signals to fully exploit the dynamic range of mixer 117. Local oscillator 125 creates a periodic signal which mixer 117 uses to mix-down the signals to a frequency range such that bandpass filter 119 can isolate the desired signal. This technique is advantageous in that it permits the radio to be tuned by adjusting the frequency of local oscillator 125.